Using the camera to scan old photos, eliminating glare

[lkalliance]

Hi, all, I’ve got dozens of old family print photographs that I’d like to digitize. Before I go to pay for a service, I wanted to try to simply use my iPhone camera.

For more recent photos with a simple matte finish, this has been successful. But some of the older photos are glossy, and age and handling has both curled them slightly and given the surface little micro creases. The result is photos of these photos that have regions of light reflection in them.

Any thoughts on the best way to avoid this? Last night I thought I’d hit on it, I waited until I had dimmer diffuse light in the room and counted on night mode to bring out the detail, but the result leaves something to be desired.

 

[arkitect]

Hi, all, I’ve got dozens of old family print photographs that I’d like to digitize. Before I go to pay for a service, I wanted to try to simply use my iPhone camera.

For more recent photos with a simple matte finish, this has been successful. But some of the older photos are glossy, and age and handling has both curled them slightly and given the surface little micro creases. The result is photos of these photos that have regions of light reflection in them.

Any thoughts on the best way to avoid this? Last night I thought I’d hit on it, I waited until I had dimmer diffuse light in the room and counted on night mode to bring out the detail, but the result leaves something to be desired.

Apparently a sheet of museum / gallery glass can help. Supposedly near zero reflection and glare.

 

[lkalliance]

I will look into this, thanks!

 

[chabig]

If you care about these photos, I can't recommend a simple flatbed scanner enough. You'll pay $100 or less for one, and it'll work much better than trying to photograph a photo.

 

[OldMacs4Me]

If you care about these photos, I can't recommend a simple flatbed scanner enough. You'll pay $100 or less for one, and it'll work much better than trying to photograph a photo.

I've copied old photos going back at least 40 years. More recently I've copied 1000s using a flatbed scanner. I'd guess less than 1% gave me any problems, when they did rotating the photo 90° on the scanner would usually resolve the issue.

IOW I will give a strong endorsement to @chabig's suggestion.

 

[reetcher]

Angle of reflection. Light science and magic is a great book about lighting

Move your light sources to a wider angle

 

[ChrisA]

Hi, all, I’ve got dozens of old family print photographs that I’d like to digitize. Before I go to pay for a service, I wanted to try to simply use my iPhone camera.

The standard method for photographing flat art that has been used for decades is this:





1) The photo (or painting) faces upward, and the camera is placed over the artwork using a copy stand so the camera looks straight down. You can use any kind of support, even a board resting on two cardboard boxes all held with duct tape. Or you can buy a copy stand. Get a bubble level and measure that the camera is 100% level parallel in both directions with the table. A copy stand helps, but improvised support can be as good.

2) Lighting. This is the key. You need two identical lights, one on the left and one on the right, and each light is off to the side so the light hits at 45 degrees. Each light will light up the side closest to it more than the far side, but the effect is canceled because you use two identical lights. The 45-degree angle aims the glare away from the camera; you need to turn down the room lights. Make light shades so NONE of the light hits the camera lens. You can use cheap clamp-lights from Home Depot, but make sure the bulbs are the best quality high CRI can get and then make shades with black cardboard to control light spill. Lighting and a good camera support are the more important things.

3) It is best to use daylight bulbs with good CRI and set the camera white balance to match the lighting.

4) Find some way to hold the edges down. Maybe some long metal weights.

5) Shoot at about f/8 and in the camera’s best quality setting and at the lowest ISO. RAW if you can. Use the camera's self-timer or a remote control to trip the shutter so you do not touch the camera. Camera movement must be eliminated. The remote control is best. This is very important for sharpness.

6) Remove dust with a can of compressed air sold for this purpose.

7) Even after all this, you should spend perhaps 5 minutes per photo using some image editor doing quick defect removal (dust and scratches) and a quick white balance.


If you are not able to do the above (don't have the lights or a good enough camera), then box it all up and send it to "Scan Cafe". Wait for a sale as they run near-weekly "last chance at this low price" sales.

 

[OldMacs4Me]

I like what @ChrisA said, but will add that vacuum easels are easy and inexpensive to make. They will hold photos perfectly flat and can be used horizontally or vertically.

Some care needs to be taken with badly curled originals as flattening them this brutally can cause additional emulsion cracking. If you have a lot of those I would do some research into finding a good way to rehydrate the emulsion and paper backing to increase flexibility. And do your experimenting on pictures that are of no concern should you damage them.

 

[Ben J.]

I don't think it's been said directly, so I'll say it; do NOT use the iphone flash. It has almost the same angle as the lens, in relation to the photo print, so it will almost always cause a reflection.

 

[ChrisA]

I don't think it's been said directly, so I'll say it; do NOT use the iphone flash. It has almost the same angle as the lens, in relation to the photo print, so it will almost always cause a reflection.

Yes, as I wrote above, the ONLY light on the photo should be at a 45-degree angle.



The vacuum easel idea was very good if you are able to do that. The glass cover idea was not so good.



ScanCafe will do this for you at only 48 cents per photo, and they add some hand work, doing dust busing and color correction. Not just a machine scan.

I usually only do the scans myself if I want the faster turnaround time.